Behind The Sand
by Windgale
Summary: Gaara never fit in. Why should he start now? Then, he remembers. GaaTem, Slight Sasunaru. One of my earlier works.


Behind the Sand

If you looked into his eyes, you wouldn't expect that he was who he was. To him, his whole life was a lie. Even his name meant something else. That's why he felt the way he felt.

Of Corse, he kept his thoughts to himself. Gaara would never share his past to anyone, something the other ninja could never accomplish. He kept his thoughts neatly collected in his mind, letting them out only when he needed to remind himself of who he was.

Sasuke Uchiha was one of Gaara's main focuses. After he passed the chunin and jonin exams was when he really took Gaara's attention. Now, he and his team were stationed in an Antarctic base.

"You idiot!" yelled Sasuke."It's two in the morning! What were you doing wandering around the frozen wastelands of Antarctica at TWO IN THE MORNING?"

"Well I didn't know you cared!" replied Naruto. "What are you? My mom?" Sasuke paused.

"Just go and sit by the fire. Before you die." Sasuke said while leaving the room. Naruto took a seat by the fire. He was just getting warm when he felt something hit his head. It was a pair of pants and a shirt. "Get out of your wet clothes. I'll turn around if you want me to."

"If I'd have known you'd get off on seeing me naked, I'd have done a strip show by now." Naruto replied while pulling off his shirt and pants. He rolled his clothes into a ball and threw the whole, wet, thing at Sasuke. He tossed it on the floor.

The two stayed in the room together, Sasuke on the couch, Naruto (a little close) on the floor by the fire. Neither one was talking. Each one seemed content with his own thoughts. Kakashi walked in the door.

Chapter 2: Worse Night Ever

"Gaara, go lie down." begged Temari. "PLEASE!!"

"No. And don't you EVER tell me what to do. If you do, know I won't hesitate to kill you."

"Sorry, Gaara. Call for me if there is anything you need."

Gaara was sitting on the top of a roof in the Leaf Village. He did this every night. Always watching the moon. Then, a thought struck him. He shivered. That was possibly the worse night ever.

Kankuro and Temari had tied Gaara in super-strong rope and took his gourd away. They were physically dragging him to Lady Anko's babysitting service. He was twelve. They were twelve. He was going to a babysitter. They were going on a Jamaican cruise. SO not fair.

After the entire night was over, Lady Anko had: Dressed Gaara in a little piggy dress, Dragged Rock Lee into her services, shaved off half of Lee's eyebrows and attached them onto Gaara with super-glue, fed the two ramen until they threw up, pulled Guy, Kakashi, and Orochimaru into her services and, hypnotized the three adults into being idiots.

When she eventually dragged Neji into her services, Gaara and Rock Lee had a plan. They used the time when Anko untied the ropes that tied Gaara and Lee together (which was by the way really sickening) to squeeze Neji in to have Lee use his tijutsu to run out and knock their captor out. Then they all ran. All except Gaara. He killed Lady Anko on the spot.

Chapter 3: To be Continued

The next morning, during a quick ride to the Land of Waves for a mission, Gaara thought about Sasuke again. He was always planning what he would do in a rematch with him. Secretly, he had always wanted a rematch since his loss type thing during the chunin exams.

"Get up you idiot!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto. Naruto suddenly jolted up and punched him in the jaw. Sasuke slammed against a wall. His mouth started to bleed a little.

"I'm up," Naruto replied. "Mom." he added just for fun.

"Where did Sakura..." Kakashi started. "Okay, I see you two are having a moment here so I'll just ask later."

"No," Sasuke said wiping the blood from his mouth. "We were done." he walked out of the room.

"What's going on between you and Sasuke?" Kakashi asked. "You two seem to be fighting now more than ever."

"He's acting like my mom; he's chasing me around and telling me what to do. And I hate it. Just because I never had a mom doesn't mean I have to have one now."

"Naruto, you just don't see after all these years. He cares about you. He wants to keep you safe."

"If he wants to keep someone safe so much, he should go marry Sakura and have kids of his own. I'm sure Sakura would agree."

"No," said Sasuke suddenly from the doorway. "Kakashi was right."

Chapter 4: Eyes of Blue Times Two

Gaara and his teammates had arrived at the Land of Waves. The mission was to find a Leaf Village spy named Toph Takashi. They were to find her and bring her back to the village alive. Alive was not one of Gaara's specialties. He would let Kankuro and Temari do the fighting. This would give him some free time.

Another powerful opponent was Neji Huyga. He had been beaten by Naruto, but he was still very strong. Did this make Naruto stronger than Neji?

"Neji!" Hinata spoke loudly and firmly. "Do you accept?"

"Why should I? I'll just end up killing you. No one's around to stop the fight. You'll just lose."

"I said, do you accept?"

"Why not?" Neji replied, gracefully falling into a fighting stance and turning on his buykugan. Neji shivered. He saw his opponent's chakra level was higher than his own.

He charged at Hinata. Hinata dodged his attacks and threw out a couple of her own. She grabbed Neji's arm and, with her free hand, pulled back Neji's shirt sleeve. About twelve red dots were scattered all over his arm. "Look familiar?" She was referring to the chunin exams prelims. Neji had done the exact same thing to her.

Chapter 5: Catch up

That night, on the roof, Gaara had thought about his past. What had happened to him, all the terrible things he saw (and/or did.). He began to cry (Yeah, right! What stupid author would write this kind of junk? Oh, wait, I would. Never mind. Carry on with the book.).

That night, around the fire, Naruto and Sasuke sat beside each other on the couch. Sakura had been missing all day, and Kakashi was out looking for her. Naruto had wanted to say something to Sasuke all day, but didn't know how to say it. Finally he said, "Hey, Sasuke,"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for the way I've been treating you lately. After all those years of competition, I guess I couldn't believe that you really cared."

"Naruto, there was no competition. You thought there was, but there wasn't. I was being me."

"Wow, you really are a jerk."

"I have to get you back for that you realize."

"Any way you like." Sasuke whispered something into Naruto's ear.

Chapter 6: Green and Black

"Hey, Gaara, you okay?" Temari said the next day.

"I'm fine." Gaara replied blankly.

"You sure?" said Kankuro.

"I'm. Fine." he replied with a little more force.

"Whatever." the two said simultaneously. They knew something was wrong.

"C'mon Lee!!" said Guy. "Just ten more!!!"

"Yes sir, Guy Sensei!!"

"Then you can go out with your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend yet Sir!!"

"Don't stop!!!!"

"Sorry, Guy Sensei!!!!!!" Guy was giving Lee his daily workout, two hundred pushups, five hundred squats, one thousand jump ropes, and one thousand forty-five kicks. "Done!"

"Anything else Guy Sensei?"

"No. Dismissed."

"Thank you Guy Sensei!!!"

"Oh, there you are!" said a girl.

"Sorry, I had to finish my training."

"That's okay, let's go!"

Chapter 7: Embarrassment

That night, Gaara decided to look up at the stars. It always helped him clear his mind. Was Naruto a better fighter than Neji? He continued his thoughts from the day before. No, he thought he just got lucky.

"Aww, Sasuke, do I have to?" pleaded Naruto.

"Hey, you were the one who called me a jerk." Sasuke smiled slightly.

"Yeah, but couldn't you just have punched me and got it over with?"

"I had thought about it, but this time you'll get emotional pain instead of physical."

"Liar!"

"What? You don't think this will bring emotional pain?" he said with rare shock in his tone.

"No! You didn't think about it! It sounded like you were waiting your whole life for this! IDOIT!"

"And if I was?"

"Then I'd.......I'd call you a sick, immature, idiot!!!"

"Oh well, I can live with that. And you'll have to live with this." All Naruto had to do was wait until Sakura came home from her date with Lee, and was sitting in the living room alone. Then He would walk into the room saying "Hey Sasuke, do you know ...." or something like that. Pretending not to know she was there. The only catch was- he was dressed just like Rock Lee.

Sasuke went up to his room and waited. About ten seconds later, he heard a bloodcurdling scream. He lay down on his bed, closed his eyes and smiled.

Chapter 8: Love

Gaara hated this moment and yet he loved it. He closed his eyes. No, he wasn't dreaming (not that he could and/or wanted to.). Kankuro couldn't believe it either. Gaara stopped avoiding it. He let Temari kiss him. He kissed her back.

Chapter 9: Confessions

"Feel better?" Temari asked in a quiet whisper. Gaara nodded his head slowly. He looked a little shocked. So did Kankuro.

"Thanks." Gaara said after a long pause. Temari smiled. Kankuro, still silent, walked over and sat beside Temari.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time. Thank you for finally letting me." Temari said so quietly that only Gaara and Kankuro could hear (Not that anyone else was listening.).

"Whoa..." whispered Kankuro."Hey Gaara, you... you okay?" Gaara nodded his head again.

"I've loved you for such a long time. I was afraid you wouldn't let me kiss you, that you would shove me off (and/or kill her.). I didn't expect you'd kiss me back."

"Hey Gaara, say something!" Kankuro said. Everyone was still in whispers.

"I didn't expect to kiss you back either." he said. "It just... happened." They both turned to each other as if to say something. They kissed again. This time it was longer. Kankuro smiled.

"I'm glad you found love Gaara. It's a wonderful thing." (Wait, how would _he _know?)

Chapter 10: Look! A whole chapter about Sasuke!

(Sorry I was bored)

Sasuke woke up. He had fallen asleep after the Naruto pun last night. He giggled dryly, stretched, and climbed out of bed.

After he was dressed, he went into Naruto's room. "You awake?" he asked.

"Yup," he replied. "Hey, where's your pitchfork?"

"Wha?"

"Last time I checked, devils are supposed to carry around little flaming pitchforks."

"Get up you baka*."

"So, why are you in my room?" Naruto asked, getting up.

"I think I forgot to say that I forgave you last night."

"Yes. You did."

"C'mon, let's go get some breakfast."

"In Antarctica?"

"Yes, you idiot. Kakashi's cooking."

"Sounds good to me."

____________________________________________________

Author's note: I hoped you liked the story!! It took me a long time to write, (7 straight hours to be exact) but I hope you liked it!!! Also, I think that I should add that I wrote this before I knew that Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro were brothers and sister so you'll have to bear with me on that one. I also know that the entire book was a little rushed, but other than that, I think I did a pretty good job overall!!! If you're thinking that this book is a little Sasuke x Naruto, you are wrong. I had never intended it to be so it's not. Not even a little bit. No, not even a little teensy-tiny bit (well, maybe a little teensy-tiny bit...). It was just how they turn out to be friends and blah, blah, blah. Zzzzzzzz.

*means idiot

GO UCHIHACEST!!!!!!!!!!!!


End file.
